Amsterhammer wrote:Nice one, Mike! 
I know I had some real lost gems amongst my vinyl, but most of that is still in the possession of my first wife.
Two obscure things I vaguely remember are a British band called Sharks, who I believe only ever made one lp but I thought it was great. There was also a one off that John Cippolina made after Quicksilver but I'm buggered if I can remember . 
In the 'slightly well known but not well known enough' category I offer -
Safe as Milk - Capt. Beefheart
The first Velvets lp - a killer eons before its time!
and..........small drum roll if you please...............
Everything Little Feat recorded before Lowell's untimely death, most particularly 'Dixie Chicken'. 
Now we are seeing dome real meat & veg.
Sharks George. Do you mean the Andy Fraser version that he started after Free, with Chris Spedding on guitar. Saw 'em twice. There was something missing somehow, although I thought the first album wasn't half bad.
Gary, Journey's first 2 albums. I think they should qualify on the basis you were polite enough to ask! Lovely.
Mother Love Bone - yes, what could have, should have been, but even those bands that didn't get their share of the spoils invariably were part of the DNA of something else.
Thanks to Rev Paul for correcting me on a couple of things. The passage of time etc etc, plus I'm not the completist I was since 1986 when returning from Australia after a couple of months my mother informed me she had 'got rid' of those couple of boxes of 'old' long players. Scratch my entire vinyl collection letters M-Z, and as I discovered later my entire West ham programme collection 1969-76. Mum is still with us (thank goodness) but I'm not denying I checked out the sentencing for a 'Crime of passion' at the time.
Back to Gems. Crown of Thorns, patchy in parts sometimes but some great music in there. I'll chuck in Bad English, who had a bit of success for while with the great John Waite on vocals and quite a bit of Journey in the band. Neil Schon, he pops up quite a bit doesn't he. Class act and very underated IMO.
Keep 'em coming, I've got a good list building already, with some names I didn't know. All good stuff.
MikeH
No Hits, No Hype.......................Classic Rock Jan 2012